Music biz presses BT to block The Pirate Bay

BT has been asked by music industry outfit BPI to voluntarily block BitTorrent tracker website The Pirate Bay.

"For too long The Pirate Bay has been allowed to attack the livelihoods of individual artists and session musicians. We hope that BT will voluntarily block this prolific, illegal site,” wrote the BPI in a missive yesterday.

The request comes after the High Court ordered BT, which now has six million subscribers on its books, to stop its punters from accessing Newzbin2 and any other sites or end-points it uses.

The national telco was given 14 days to implement the measure and must pay for the cost, estimated initially at £5,000.

“We can confirm we are now in receipt of a letter from the BPI [requesting that BT block the Pirate Bay site]. BT is considering its response," said the company.

"In line with the Newzbin judgment, a court order will be needed before any blocking could begin. BT is currently focused on implementation of that order.” ®